Braiding and lace-making machine



March 25, 1924.

- c. SANDWEG BRAIDING AND LACE MAKING MACHINE Filed July 27, 1 920 2Sheets-Sheet 1 M'mh 25, 1924.

1,488,064 0. SANDWEG BRAIDING AND LACE MAKING MACHINE I Filed July 27',1920 2 Sheets-Sheet? [221 012 far:

i atented Mar. 25, 1924.

1 F l t BRAIDING AND LACE-MAKING MACHINE.

Application filed July 27, 1920. Serial No. 399,438.

(GRANTED UNDER THE PROVISIONS 01* THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1921, 41 STAT. L.,1313.)

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL SANDWEG, a citizen of the German Republic,residing at Langerfeld, near Barmen, Rhenish Prussia,

5 Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Braidingand Lace- Making Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to a so-called single thread braiding orlace-making machine of the kind wherein the quoits or circle platesserve as drivers while the switches usually present are omittedentirely, and these plates are actuated only when the bobbins are to beadvanced. The invention consists in this that on the outer or inner sideor on both sides of the main track there are drivers ar restable at eachquarter turn; each V-like portion of the track which extends betweenadjacent driving plates is made convertible into a triangular track bythe provision oi. openable and closable passage-ways connecting theupper ends of the V, which passageways, when all are opened, form withthe 5 sinuous raceway circuit. These passageways are formed andcontrolled by slide members, the passage of bobbins through them beingeffected by driving members, said slides and members being governed bythe pattern gear.

The quoits are arranged in pairs, the direction of rotation ofsuccessive quoits being reversed.

Moreover, the machine can be so designed that by means of these newtracks the bobbins can be advanced in the same direction on tothe nextplate and be guided back on to the previous plate. To obtain this motionof the bobbins by means of the new tracks, suitable rings of drivers areprovided, which rings continuously circulate on the corresponding sideof the main track and the various drivers of which can be individuallythrown into action to drive the bobbins at the proper moment by means ofthe pattern gear.

Owing to the new modification in construction of the machine, thevariety of patterns producible thereon is considerably increased.

This machine has been patented in Germany, No. 331,054, February 27,1919; France, No. 519,635, July 8, 1920; England,

No. 148,330 filed July 9, 1920; Switzerland, No. 92,673, July 17 1920,and Netherlands 35 filed Sept. 9, 1919 patent not yet granted.

I am aware that in braiding machines it has been proposed to provideauxiliary plates adjacent to one another and the main plates, and soforming an auxiliary track for the bobbins. In contradistinction tothis, according to the present invention, auxiliary bobbin tracks areformed by the conversion of V-like track portions into triangular trackportions in the manner above described The invention is illustrated byway of example in the drawing, wherein- Fig. 1 shows a portion of themachine in plan, part of the track plate being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a section on line AA in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view below Fig. 1, with the driving wheels omitted and Fig.4: a section on line BB in Fig. 1.

The quoits or plates 1 of the braiding machine which constitute driversare arranged as usual to be rotatable and are laid out in a circle toform the track. They are fitted as closely as possible in correspondingapertures in the track plate 2 and are provided with four bobbin-notches(i. e. bobbin-driving notches) a, b, 0 and d spaced apart They arerotated each by its individual pinion 3 by means of a coupling 4 soarranged and controlled by the pattern gear 35 that they can be arrestedat any quarter-turn. Moreover, they are arranged so closely alongsideone another that any plate when rotated may engage in the bobbin-notchesof its two neighbors and they thus at the same so time direct thebobbins to the crossing-places. The bobbin-notches of each plate arethus capable of coacting with arcuate track-portions (as portion 10,4:1, 42) on opposite sides of the aforesaid apertures, whereby a bobbinengaged by the notch may be driven from one crossing-place (as a) to thenext (as 0).

Now according to the invention on, for example, the outer side of themain track, 1 0 each V-like track-portion (as 50, 50) which extendsbetwpen adjacent plates 1 (i. e. the cusp-like track-portion formed atthe meeting of the adjacent arcuate track-portions) is made convertibleinto a track by the provision of an openable and closable passageway 6connecting the upper ends of the V, shown closed at the right in Fig. 1.These passage-ways open into the bobbin-notches of plates 1 which'havebeen arrested in suitable positions and form with these bobbinnotches aring-formed additional track running around the usual braiding track,through which additional track the bobbins may be conducted when thepattern requires it.

Where the V-like track-portions are provided with passageways, it iscustomary to omit the pointed portions of the track-plate 2 asheretofore usually formed, and to mount said pointed portions 5 at alower level whereby they constitute track-portions for the bobbins byengaging the bobbin spindles below their flanges instead of betweenthem. Said portions 5 are held by standards 7 fastened on the lowerplate 8 of the machine.

Coacting with the passageways 6 are slides 9 which are guided in thetrack-plate 2 and normally may be slid up to the usual track, blockingthe passage-ways 6 in their advanced positions. The slides 9 areactuated each by means of an angle-lever 10 and a pattern gear draw-rod11 attached to the latter together with a retracting spring 12 whichtends to hold the slide 9 in its advanced position, that is, in itsblocking position (Fig. 1, right).

The bobbins are moved through the passageways 6 and the bobbin-notchesof the arrested driver-plates 1, i. e. through the circular track formedaround the usual track, by means of rings of driving members 13. In theembodiment by way of example, these members are mounted in two flatrings 15 and 16 which are located one above the other and guided on aseries of standards 14, which rings surround the entire braiding trackand are given a continuous circular movement. The lower ring 15 isguided by standards 14: themselves, and the upper ring 16 byguide-screws 17 inserted in the track-plate 2 and engaging an annulargroove of the ring 16. The two flat rings 15 and 16 have circular motionin opposite directions and are given this movement by toothed wheels 18and 19 which mesh with a circular rack in the rings.

In these two flat rings 15 and 16 are mounted the radially extendingdriving members 13, so that one set circulates to the right and theother set to the left and consequently when they are shifted in, thebobbins move in the particular direction in the aforesaid ring-formedtrack. The driving members 13 are slidable in the flat rings 15, 16 andsubjected to the pull of springs 20 which tend to hold them in theposition wherein they are withdrawn from the track, that is, are shiftedout of engagement, so that they cannot actuate the bobbins. They areshifted into engagement by means of the 1,ass,oea

pattern gear. 'For this purpose are provided the eccentrically formedguides 21 and 22 on which the driving-members 13 can run by means ofrollers 23 at their extreme ends, so that in that way, thedriving-members 13 are gradually advanced against the action of thesprings 20 and thus shifted into the track of the bobbin in order todrive same. The eccentric guides of which those indicated by 21 movingto the left act on driving-members and those by 22 on drivbig-memberscirculating in the opposite direction are each secured by a pin 24. or25, which can move up or down in the trackplate 2 and the lower plate8,and are normally held in their upper position by means of springs 26,in which position these eccentric guides 21, 22 are located above thepath of the driving-members 13 coacting with them. Below the bottomplate 8 a bell crank lever 27 of the pattern gear engages these pins 21, 25, so that by means of said gear at a suitable moment the guides 21,22 can be lowered into the path of the driving-members 13 to shift theminto engagement.

Finally, each driving-member 13 has on it a locking lug 28, andcooperating with these lugs are locking bars 29 and bent together intocircular form, of which bars the bar 29, cooperating with thedriving-members of the flat ring 16, is arranged on the outside of thelatter and is fastened to the track-plate 2, while the other bar 30 isheld on the inside of the standards 14. In a corresponding manner thelocking lugs 28 are arranged on the driving-members 13, on one at theoutside, and on the other at the inside end. The locking bars 29, 30 atplaces opposite the guides 21 or 22 are provided with recesses 31, whichenable the driving members to be shifted in and out at these places.lVith further rotation, however, the driving-members 13 which at thetime have been shifted engage, by means of their looking lugs 28, behindthe rail 29 or 30 where by they can thus be retained in'the shiftedinposition, but the guides 21, 22 can be again shifted out of engagementin order to relieve the pattern gear.

The bobbins g, have disks or flanges which extend beyond the margins ofthe pas sage ways 6. The upper gear 19 that meshes with teeth 16 to oneside of the recess 16 in the upper ring 16 is driven by a shaft 19, andthe lower ring 15 is driven by a shaft 18" which carries a gear 18 inmesh with teeth 15 in said lower ring. The horizontal pinions or seriesof intermeshing gears 3 have clutch faces 4* which are adept ed to beengaged by slid'able clutches 4 which slide in sleeves 3 the couplings abeing engaged by a member. attached to vertically movable rods 1, whichcarry above the lower plate springs 4 said rods being connected to bellcranks which are maintained by pins 1", said cranks being actuated byrods P.

The margin of the way 6 between each of the alternate concave portionshas convex recesses 6 with which aline the projecting convex portions fof the quoit or circle plates, to close the way when opposite thereto,and when one of these projecting convex portions of the quoit or circleplates, as f or 42, is above the concave margins and 51 of the points 5,a bobbin may be moved in the way 6 to the next quoit plate.

As follows from the above description, in this machine the bobbins canbe conducted by means of the pattern gear either over the usual braidingtrack by means of the driving plates 1 or by means of the drivingmembers13, through the special track formed around the usual track. In thelatter case the bobbins can be advanced in the usual direction of motionor be moved back in the opposite direction, according as thedriving-members of the first ring 15 or those of the ring 16 come intoaction. As already mentioned in the introduction, the specialring-formed track might be formed on the inside instead of on theoutside of the main track or such a track might be provided on eachside. Finally, the machine could be so designed that the bobbins couldmove through the ringeformed track only in one direction, in which case,of course, one ring of driving-members will be omitted.

If desired, by suitably constructing the machine, the passageways 6which cross the trackplate points might also be utilized for arrestingthe bob-bins therein and thus for allowing bobbins on the main track topass by.

Finally, is should be stated that the rings of driving-members might bearranged in a different manner. For example, the flat rings 15 and 16might be rep-laced by suitably guided chains, similar to the formerlymuch used pattern gear chains, in which the driving-members 13themselves wouldhave to be arranged so as to be capable of beingsuitably shifted in and out.

Claims:

1. In a braiding or lace making machine, a main track consisting of atrack-plate, track-plate points and driving plates arranged in recessesof said track-plate, said driving plates being provided with fourdriving notches eac means for rotating said driving plates and forarresting them at each quarter turn, passage ways transverselyintersecting or crossing the trackplate points on one side of said maintrack and forming with the driving notches of the driving plates acircuitous auxiliary track in which the. braiding carriers may betransferred from one driving plate of the main track to another withoutcrossing braiding carriers located on the main track, said passage waysbeing openable and closable by slides controlled by the pattern gear.

2. In a braiding or lace making machine, a main track consisting of atrack-plate, track-plate points and driving plates arranged in recessesof said track-plate, said driving plates being provided with fourdriving notches each, means for rotating said driving plates and forarresting them at each quarter turn, passage ways transverselyintersecting or crossing the trackplate points on one side of said maintrack and forming with the driving notches of said driving plates acircuitous auxiliary track in which the braiding carriers may betransferred from one driving plate of the main track to another withoutcrossing braiding carriers located on the main track, said passage waysbeing openable and closable by slides controlled by the pattern gear,rings of circulating driving members for moving the braiding carriersthrough said auxiliary track, and pattern gear controlled means forshifting said driving members in and out independently of one another.

3. In a braiding or lace making machine, a main track consisting of atrack-plate, track-plate points and driving plates arranged in recessesof said track-plate, said driving plates being provided with fourdriving notches each, means for rotating said driving plates and forarresting them at each quarter turn, passage ways transverselyintersecting orcrossing the trackplate points on one side of said maintrack and forming with the driving notches of the driving plates acircuitous auxiliary track in which the braiding carriers may betransferred from one driving plate of the main track to another withoutcrossing braiding carriers located on the main track, said passage Waysbeing openable and clos able by slides controlled by the pattern gear,two rings of driving members circulating in opposite directions formoving the braiding carriers forwards and backwards in said auxiliarytrack, and pattern gear controlled means for shifting said drivingmembers in and out independently of one another.

4. In a braiding or lace making machine, a main track consisting of atrack-plate, track-plate points and driving plates arranged in recessesof said track-plate, said driving plates being provided with fourdriving notches each, means for rotating said driving plates and forarresting them at each quarter turn, passage ways transverselyintersecting or crossing the trackplate points on one side of said maintrack and forming with the driving notches of said driving plates acircuitous auxiliary track in which the braiding carriers may betransferred from one driving plate of the main track to another withoutcrossing braiding carriers located on the main track, said passage Waysbeing openable and closable by slides controlled by the pattern gear,driving members slidably mounted in circulating rings for moving thebraiding carriers through said auxiliary track, springs normally holdingsaid driving members in their inoperative position, and eccentricallyformed pressure-cheeks controlled by the pattern gear for shifting saiddriving members into their operative positions.

5. In a braiding er lace making machine, a main track consisting of atrack-plate, trackplaite points and driving plates arranged in recessesof said track-plate, said driving plates being provided with fourdriving notches each, means for rotating said driving plates and forarresting them at each quarter turn, passage Ways transverselyintersecting or crossing the track-plate points on one side of said maintrack and forming with the driving notches of said driving plates acircuitous auxiliary track in which the braiding carriers may betransferred from one driving plate of said main track to another Withoutcrossing braiding carriers located on the main track, said passage Waysbeing openable and closable by slides controlled by the pattern gear,driving members slidably mounted in circulating rings for moving thebraiding carriers through said auxiliary track, springs normally holdingsaid driving members in their inoperative positions, eccentrically'formed pressure-cheeks controlled by the pattern gear iior shifting saiddriving members into their operative positions, locking lugs on saiddriving members, and rigidly mounted locking bars adapted to co-operatewith said locking lugs for holding said driving members in operativepositions, said locking bars being at certain places opposite saidpressure-cheeks provided with recesses through which said locking lugsmay pass.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aifix my signature.

CARL SANDWEG.

